Can you name the countries with the most active military personnel?

Rank	Country	Personnel
14.		306,000
15.		302,000
16.		285,000
17.		290,000
18.		283,000
19.		280,000
20.		251,000
21.		248,000
22.		246,000
23.		239,000
24.		234,000
25.		202,000
26.	202,000
27.	202,000
28.	202,000
29.	202,000
30.	202,000
31.	202,000
32.	202,000
33.	202,000
34.	202,000
35.	202,000
36.	202,000
37.	202,000
38.	202,000
39.	202,000
40.	202,000
41.	202,000
42.	202,000
43.	202,000
44.	202,000
45.	202,000
46.	202,000
	202,000

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There are 204 comments for this game.
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World's Largest Militaries Quiz

by davidr

Created Jan 30, 2009 in Geography
Featured Jan 30, 2009
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	deej:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:23 GMT		9 points
	cool quiz!

	kinskey:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:26 GMT		131 points
	eritrea?!

	Sabo:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:33 GMT		18 points
	Great quiz. Some surprising answers ... I figured Venezuela would have a larger military than Colombia given the money they make from their oil reserves.

	Massagraf:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:35 GMT		32 points
	I like this quiz but the number of personnel makes me sad...

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	newniki:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:48 GMT		8 points
	Some genuinely surprising answers. Great quiz davidr!

	jesus:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:48 GMT		44 points
	I'm surprised UK is not here considering we are in the middle of two wars. And before you say davidr I know that the UK is 27 th with a military personnel of 195900.

	James:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:49 GMT		18 points
	A very interesting quiz. I was surprised by Eritrea too, but it looks like they have significant ongoing disputes with all of their neighbours, particularly Ethiopia, who they had a war over territory with in 2000.

	CarpeDiem:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:50 GMT		11 points
	Eritrea only gained its full independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after 30+ years of war, so they're probably not really ready to stand down yet. @Kyle & mkgrenwel, I was right there with you-- 24 of 25. Eritrea only made sense once I saw it on the list. :-) GREAT QUIZ!!

	montecarlo:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:51 GMT		3 points
	why is 5 ranked behind 4 if it has a larger number?

	Kicking222:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:53 GMT		6 points
	I got 23- forgot Burma/Myanmar- but even though Eritrea does make sense, I never would've thought of it. Though if they're on the list, I wonder why Ethiopia is only 29th.

	Kicking222:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 18:55 GMT		30 points
	And since we got this quiz, I think we should see the "Countries with no military" quiz (perhaps based on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_without_armed_forces).

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	jzev:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:11 GMT		32 points
	how about a similar quiz based on what percentage of the population is in the military

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	David83:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:36 GMT		8 points
	I bet a good few of those countries have Military Service for guys in their late teens. I'm pretty sure that's why Thailand's on there

	Kevin:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:38 GMT		8 points
	@David: That's why I was surprised that there was no Switzerland. They have compulsory service for a large percentage of their population. I guess the pop is just too small.

	Uhlan:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 19:40 GMT		9 points
	@Whole Lotta Sporcle; Eritrea fought a long war with Ethiopia before independence. Iran tries to safeguard the revolution (hence the IRGC), al-Qaeda and Saddam wanted to topple the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Brazil, who knows? I too was surprised the UK doesn't feature.

	davidr:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:22 GMT		17 points
	@Booger: I'm following the BBC and the US and British governments. One line of reasoning which is that the military junta in Burma has no mandate from the people and, thus, no right to change the name of the country. The Burmese people refer to their country as Burma in everyday speech and Myanmar when speaking formally. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7389525.stm

	Ieuano:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:23 GMT		21 points
	to booger, if you recognise the name Myanmar you legitimse the dictatorship there.

	debbiedoesnothin:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:25 GMT		7 points
	Good quiz. I learned something from this one. I was surprised France and Italy have bigger militaries than the UK. Eritrea boggles my mind. When I was going through a list of African countries, I passed it up because it's so small.

	titaniferous:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:31 GMT		7 points
	Another nice "gettable" one. @Ben:Brazil is on the list mostly because it's an enormous country, fifth most populous globally. Considering that twelve smaller countries are ahead of it on this list, its military is relatively small as a function of population. Indonesia's situation is similar.

	davidr:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:33 GMT		1 point
	@Kevin: I'm not sure how the size of Switzerland's army is defined and Wikipedia's source is in German, which I don't read very well at all. I expect it's calculated based on the fact that the active military service of a Swiss conscript is only one or two years, even though he will then be a member of the militia (effectively, a reservist) until he is in his thirties or later.

	davidr:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:34 GMT		5 points
	@kicking222: I submitted a quiz of countries with no military at the same time as this one! :-)

	Annie:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:35 GMT		3 points
	@davidr: is there any chance of a military per capita quiz? (or however this sort of thing would correctly be described) @kicking222: a countries with no military quiz would actually be a great idea; the list is not overwhelmingly long and seems to be a reasonable but not over the top challenge.

	Annie:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:36 GMT		4 points
	@davidr: You beat me by a minute when responding to kicking222's comment. But thanks a lot for submitting that one! I look forward to playing it!

	davidr:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:40 GMT		1 point
	@Most people: As has been remarked, Eritrea spent 31 years at war trying to become independent from Ethiopia and, since independence in 1993, has been engaged in border disputes with Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen.

	Vernon Gonsalves:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:43 GMT		4 points
	22/25. Myanmar, Taiwan and of course, like everybody else, I completely disregarded Eritrea when mentally going through all large countries and countries with conflicts (though I did attempt Ethiopia). I tried about 30 that didn't register, including such stables as Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Philippines, Argentina, Chile, Cuba etc.

	i feel like i should know this:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:49 GMT		40 points
	Israel has less than 200,000 active military personnel? I find that hard to believe...

	Booger:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:51 GMT		3 points
	@davidr and Ieuan: I understand what you are saying about the horrendous government in the country, but the fact of the matter is that the junta is the government there. The UN (admittedly, way down on my list of entities) calls the country Myanmar. I simply disagree with the idea of trying to take a political position by ignoring the name of a country chosen by its goverment.

	Booger:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:54 GMT		6 points
	@i feel like I should know this: Israel has many reserve troops. If you combine active and reserve troops, Israel ranks 21st.

	GeordieGuitarist:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 20:56 GMT		8 points
	Used to be in the British army. There's not enough equipment or supplies for half of us. And considering we're in the middle of two unnecessary wars, i can understand why we don't have many people jumping at the chance to join up.

	davidr:	Jan 30th, 2009 at 21:03 GMT		7 points
	@Booger: The UN's position, like yours, is that the government of a member country can call itself whatever it wants. I'm not taking a political position by ignoring the government's choice of name; I'm taking a political position that involves ignoring the government's choice of name. Just like I ignore that government's claims that democracy is a threat to the peace and stability of the country it has been repressing for most of the last fifty years.

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